Highly Effective SEO Tips and Myths
Search engine optimization is a black art, and it takes a lot of time and trouble to de-bunk all the false advice out there.
Some people do it because they heard a friend to tell a friend that advice. Others do it to sell ten page eBooks on the topic that cost the end user $65 a pop. I am going to help you get something done though by sharing the answers to some of these frequently asked (and answered wrong) questions.
Will having a dedicated IP address help you with search engine optimization?
The simple answer is no. It is a myth that Google or any other search engine will penalize you for hosting on a server that shares an IP address or for not having a dedicated IP address.
Is having static addresses better than having dynamic ones?
To explain, a dynamic address would be one used by a service like WordPress does by default, giving you something like article.php?post=543 after your domain in the addresses bar or something to that effect. When you see a static address, it looks much more like the one you see at WebHostingShow.com when you click on a story to read where it has in the address something like /archive/story-about-hosting.php.
In most cases, search engines would search either one but I would tend to go with the static addresses if you can, because it is more user friendly to the visitor and for keyword reasons. Now having good related keywords in the address, this is a search engine optimization tip that is slowly fading away but is still relevant right now.
For search engine optimization, what is the best way to change a domain name address?
You want to use what is referred to in the business as a 301 redirect. There are a number of ways to get this done so by searching Google for 301 redirect you are bound to find a lot of methods. Easiest would be to put this in your .htaccess file:
redirect 301 /old/oldpage.htm http://www.yourdomain.com/newpage.htm
A 301 redirect is telling the world that your page has moved permanently, that is what the 301 code stands for.
You should get away from your previous hosting company as quickly as you can?
This is not always the case. You may want to wait till you see your search engine spiders and bots crawling over your new content before you go back to your old web host and cancel your web site’s old hosting account. Not doing so could lead the search engine spiders to a dead end a few times (during domain name propagation) and it might cause your web site to get dropped from the search engine rankings. This is because from the spider’s point of view, you no longer exist.
Have any other SEO myths that need to be de-bunked? Drop me a line or a comment.
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